Six second year Biosciences students started the first Kent iGem team during the summer. iGem stands for “International Genetically Engineered Machine”, and is a competition organised by the iGem organisation based in MIT, open to students working on synthetic biology projects during the summer. This year, our undergraduate iGem students worked on an environmental focused project aimed to detoxify water and soil from Nitric oxide (NOx) pollutants, and to convert pollutants to useful products using E. coli. The team presented their project idea during the UK iGem meeting in London in July, where they met other UK iGem teams as well as academic and industry experts. The team then presented their final results at the European iGem Jamboree in Lyon in France.
Congratulations to the team consisting of Kara Stubbs, David Hanly, Laura Carman, Sarah Dowie, Michael Coghlan and Rathaven Gunaratnarajah on winning a Bronze award…the hard work paid off!